Modeling Blog

Modeling Blog

This page consists of infrequent updates documenting some of my modeling projects. 

Back Bay Station, Boston, Massachusetts

The original Back Bay Station was built in 1899 to replace the Park Square Station of the Boston and Providence Railroad. This was a stone masonry structure built over the railroad tracks.

Top Left: 1899 Back Bay Station, west end opposite Dartmouth Street. (Undated photo) 

Top Right: 1914 postcard; Dartmouth and Buckingham Street view of 1899 Back Bay Station. 

Bottom: 1921 aerial view of 1899 Back Bay Station. (National Archives Catalog, NAID: 23941455 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/23941455)   

This station burned April 15, 1928, and in 1928-9 A new Back Bay Station was built, opening in less than 15 months after the fire. 

Left: East end of 1899 Back Bay Station after April 15, 1928 fire.

Right: Dartmouth Street side of 1899 Back Bay Station after April 15, 1928 fire.

Like the 1899 station. the new station also spanned the tracks and platforms over which it was carried on a series of multiple masonry arches supported on steel columns. All of the work in connection with the new station, including plans for the building, was carried out under the direction of C. E. Smith, vice-president, Edward Gagel, chief engineer, A. S. Tuttle, construction engineer and W.T. Dorrance, designing engineer of the New Haven Railroad. The contractor on the station was the Treddenneck-Billings Company, Boston, MA.  

Top: 1899 Back Bay Station site plan from Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Plate 10 Vol. 2 1914

Bottom: Site Plan of station facilities for the 1928-9 Back Bay Station from the collection of NHRHTA Station Drawings.

Above: View of new Back Bay Station. Railway Age November 30, 1929

This station was a steel, brick-faced structure including limestone trim, a granite base course and a cast concrete band just above the second story windows. The first floor included a large waiting area, ticket office, baggage and parcel facilities, men’s and women’s restrooms, a bookstore and luncheonette among other amenities. The platforms below the station were accessed by both stairways and an elevator. The second floor was office and storage space and included a toilet for railroad employees.  This floor surrounded the main waiting room on the east, south and west walls.

Note the large Stanhope Garage wall sign in photos of the first and second stations!

Left: Interior view of Information Booth looking south, towards the Buckingham Street entrance. Notice the apparent large skylight in the interior photos and how this is a solid roof, even in early photos. Perhaps the skylight didn’t keep the rain out from the start and was covered over very quickly?

Right: Interior view of Information Booth looking north, towards the ticket offices and Boston and Albany Railroad tracks. The baggage and parcel area is to the extreme right.

Left: Interior view looking south towards the Buckingham Street entrance. Corner of Ticket Offices in the extreme left of photo

Center: Interior view towards elevator to tracks and platforms below the station.

Right: Interior view of Luncheonette located on Dartmouth Street. 

Above: Main Floor Plan, 1928-9 Back Bay Station Railway Age, November 30, 1929. 

The New Haven Railroad ceased operations December 31, 1968 becoming part of the Penn Central. Back Bay Station was closed in 1979 and demolished in 1987 when the current station was built on the existing location.

Above: View of current Back Bay Station. The current station supports Amtrak service for Acela (Boston-Washington), Lake Shore Limited (Boston-Chicago), Amtrak Regional (Boston – Newport News, VA) as well as Boston MBTA commuter service.

I have long wanted to build a model of Back Bay Station. Starting in 2011. I began playing around with the elevation drawings I obtained from membership in NHRHTA. 

Above: Elevation drawings available from NHRHTA. 

Eventually with the expansion of the internet and research I obtained high resolution photo images from the HABS (Historical American Buildings Survey) Library of Congress site. 

 Above: High resolution photo images from the HABS collection of decorative limestone and cast concrete ornamentation of the 1928-9 Back Bay Station.

Above: High resolution photo images from the HABS collection of decorative limestone and cast concrete architectural features of the 1928-9 Back Bay Station.

Above: High resolution photo images from the HABS collection of decorative limestone and granite base on the 1928-9 Back Bay Station.

This allowed me to combine a color brick surface layer and actual images of the limestone trim, cast signs, granite base, doors, windows and awning structure that I could layout on an Excel worksheet to create the walls of the building. This effort was complete by about 2018. Not a very fast-moving project. 

Top: Excel worksheet with elements overlaid on NHRHTA Back Bay Station elevation diagram

Bottom: Detail image of section of the Excel worksheet showing NHRHTA elevation drawing base (West elevation, facing parking lot). The concrete, limestone, windows and granite base are from HABS photos. The entrance door on the left and baggage door on the right are from on-line images. I later found a more suitable entry door for the left-hand entrance.

That allowed me to combine a color brick surface layer and actual images of the limestone trim, cast signs, granite base, doors, windows and awning structure that I could combine onto an Excel worksheet to create the walls of the building. This effort was complete by about 2018. Not a very fast project. 

And there I was stuck for a while. While the elevation drawings included a scale, these were not the original drawings, so I had no idea how accurate my design was. In 2020, courtesy of Google Books, I came across the November 30, 1929 issue of Railway Age that included a floor plan with dimensions. Finally I could move ahead...except I have no vector or drawing software.  All of my artwork is managed in Paint, and while it suits many of my needs it is not capable of dimensioning complex artwork such as this.

Mike Redden came to my rescue in 2022, using SketchUp 3D software to import and properly size my drawings. So why am I building the first version in 2026? Like everyone else, life tends to get in the way of some things, like building Back Bay Station.

So in 2026 I needed something to show at the North East Railroad Prototype Modelers meet. Dusting off my files I made a trip to Staples for large format printing.

This is my first build of this model. It was intended to be a learning experience, so I used foamboard and 3M 77 adhesive spray.

I taped the walls together first and the first thing I learned was; they all fit together! 

With that behind me, I “borrowed” my wife’s hot glue and assembled the building. I had never bothered to design or draw a roof, so a large sheet of foamboard was placed under the model and I used a pencil to trace the outline before cutting the two-story and baggage room roofs. 

Top: Back Bay Station West Elevation (Dartmouth St.), HABS photo collection

Bottom: HO Scale model Back Bay Station West (Dartmouth St.)

Top:  Back Bay Station South elevation (Buckingham St.) HABS photo collection.

Bottom: HO Scale model Back Bay Station South (Buckingham St.)

Top:  Back Bay Station East elevation (parking lot) HABS photo collection.

Bottom: HO Scale model Back Bay Station East (parking lot)

Top:  Back Bay Station North elevation (B&A side) HABS photo collection.

Bottom: HO Scale model Back Bay Station North (B&A side) 

After assembly, I touched up the exposed edges of the foamcore along the top of the walls with a concrete-colored marker and likewise using a brick-colored marker, touched up the edges where the walls joined.

I say this is the first build as it was strictly intended to be a learning experience, so what did I learn?

Foamcore is a great choice to use for a first attempt at a large structure. It’s easy to work with, readily available and assembly goes quickly.

Speaking of the edges of the walls where they joined; there are a lot of non-right angles on this building. I learned that notching the foamcore allowed me to create these odd angle joints with relative ease,

My original concept for design was pretty good and using high resolution black and white photos works well on a color structure; concrete and stone are various shades of gray in color and black and white.

Modeling the actual roof will be more challenging; I have to figure out how to build all those skylights. I have to use available photos to try to scale the elevator room on the roof. Since my design was based on the elevation drawings, the chimney was part of the sides for two walls, so I need to separate the chimney from the walls before printing the next version. There are some really funky vents that look a little like cinder blocks. These are actually the smoke ducts shown on the floor plan that extend from the station platforms under the building and through the building to the roof for ventilation of the track and platform area.  When the station was built, steam locomotives powered the passenger trains and even during the diesel era, some locomotives were notorious for exhaust emissions.

For the walls, the stone lintel over the one-story baggage room should actually be the stone cap along the one-story baggage room end wall. I did not make brick walls for the top of the walls on the roof side so I used sections from the front side that have the engraved lettering sections. 

I did not build the Buckingham Street awning the extends the length of the building – primarily because I thought it would not look great using foamcore and that it would be fragile – plus, even when built, I had no idea how to transport a building of this size! I ended up using a 33 gallon trash bag. But the awning has to be built. I mean, how can I possibly not include awning brackets with cast griffins? Even if they cannot be seen in the HO scale version, I will know they are there!

Finally, while I’m pleased with this building, the “final” version will be paper over 0.040”-0.080” styrene. This version will include the Buckingham Street awning and the entrances to the bookstore, luncheonette and waiting alcove on the Dartmouth Street (main) entrance can be properly constructed as inset bay type entrances, relieving the overall “flat” surface appearance.

Happy Modeling,

Peter

Primary resources:

NHRHTA New Haven Railroad Station Drawings

Along the Line, July 1929

Railway Age, November 30, 1929

NH 600-Series Coach Conversion - Butterflies to Caterpillars

From my 2007 NHRTA Modeling Clinic 

History

In December 1945 the New Haven Railroad purchased about 97 parlors from the Pullman Company that were numbered 2000-2096.  The New Haven promptly leased the cars back to the Pullman Company for operation.

These parlors became redundant with the arrival of new stainless steel sheathed parlors from the Pullman Osgood Bradley plant in Worcester, MA and conversion to coaches began with car 600 (ex-2059 Plymouth Light) in May 1949.

The interiors were replaced with rubber covered floor tiles, walkover seats, luggage racks and solid color paint schemes.  Since the cars were from different Pullman Plans, coach seating ranged from 71-88 passengers.  The conversion of coaches 600-658 continued from 1949 through February 1954.

The cars served in commuter coach service.  Coach 657 (ex-2064 Warwick Light) was wrecked in the Federal Express in July 1955. 642 (ex-2046 Sheffield) was removed from service in October 1958.  Most of the remainder of the fleet was removed from service or condemned in two large groups in March 1960 or March 1962.  The last seven cars in the series were removed from service or condemned in 1966.

The group consisted of several Pullman Plan parlors including Plans 2416, 2417, 3416, 3916 and 3917.  Some of these cars were equipped with mechanical air conditioning, and some with ice air conditioning.  The Plan 3416 cars were numbered 619 and 627-637 inclusive.  Car 619 was equipped with mechanical air conditioning and friction bearing trucks.  Cars 627-637 were all equipped with ice air conditioning and friction bearing 6-wheel trucks.  All Plan 3416 cars were rebuilt with 88 seat passenger capacity.  Coaches 627-637 were commonly assigned to 500-series commuter runs as well as Trains 675, 678, 741 and 744.  Most of these trains ran out of South Station in Boston, MA in commuter service.

Since I have photo references of both sides of Coach 633 I selected this car to model.  I have no photo evidence this car was repainted into the Black Knight scheme, however there is photo evidence other 600-series coaches wore this scheme by 1958.  This car was condemned in March 1960.  Coach 633 (Pullman Plan 3416, ex-2022 Gertrude) would have been in Old Colony commuter service in 1959, which is the year I have chosen to model.

Project Parts List

1.  Gently pry roof off model.  Some tabs will be damaged, but when turned and correctly oriented, the tabs and slots will no longer line up anyway

2.  Disassemble trucks and couplers from underframe; 1 screw for trucks, 1 screw for rear coupler section, one screw for front coupler section

3.  Remove three screws – 1 in underframe beneath each truck, 1 in center of car, between sills and behind brake lever

4. Gently pry interior from inside car.  Work from ends lifting gently and slowly towards middle which will pop free.

6. Study the prototype photos, two Branchline interiors need to be spliced together to create a section of coach seats long enough for the Walthers interior.  The saloons need to be relocated to the opposite sides at each end. I painted the floor of the modified Branchline interior box car red and the seats coach green.  These are similar colors to the Walthers parlor interior, and I think they help visibility from outside the car whether they are correct or not. 

7. Cut two paired windows from Branchline 14-section car sides.  File flush to top of sash and bottom of sash to fit Walthers car side.

8. Open Walthers car side by drilling vertical row of holes inside window outline, connecting with knife blade, using sharp blade to score horizontally inside window panel belt rails to connect vertical cuts.

9. Install the Branchline paired windows into the opening on the Walthers car body, then fill, file and sand to hide the joints.

10. On the roof, remove the small square exhaust fan by gently pushing from inside the clerestory with a blunt-tipped tool (I used a pair of tweezers) to force the locating pin out. Once loosened, pull the vent out with a gentle rocking motion from outside the clerestory.  I saved this part for use on a later project. 

11. Remove underbody from car body.  Mine was glued in one spot near one corner on one side.  There are several pieces of thin, double-sided tape also holding the underbody to the car body. Slide a small screwdriver blade between car body and underbody on one end, then a chisel blade to work the attached areas until separated.

12. Study the Walthers underbody, prototype photos and a Branchline HW sleeper underbody detail diagram.  This is an ice activated A/C car, so the Walthers components for the mechanical A/C system must be removed.  The Walthers battery box can remain in place, the pressure tank has to be relocated closer to the main cross-bearer as shown to make space for the single and double ice bunkers located on that side of the car.  A double ice bunker is installed on the opposite side.  From photos, it appears the brake valve needs to be relocated.  I also relocated some of the steam traps per the Branchline diagram since they are not all clearly shown in the photos I used as reference.  The axle-drive pulley should be relocated to the same position at the opposite end of the center beam after removing the drive train for the mechanical system from that location. 

Original underbody

Modified underbody

Blue-taped parts are moved or added.  Removed Mechanical A/C parts in foreground.

13. Fill the notches in the center beam from the removed and relocated equipment, fill the hole in the clerestory from the removed exhaust fan. File and sand to remove the joint lines. 

14. I painted the interior a light gray and included painting the saloon walls for the Branchline coach interior at this time.

15. Mask off the windows from the inside of the car to prevent overspray from getting on interior surfaces.  I’m doing a car in the black knight scheme, which means car body, roof and underbody are all black.  If you are modeling an earlier or unrepainted car with green sides, your approach to painting will be somewhat different.

16. Paint the masked car body black, as well as the underframe and roof.

17. For the black knight scheme I used Testors hemi orange for the letter board above the windows. 

18. Reassemble the interior and underbody

19. Give the entire car a coat of gloss to promote decal application.

20. Apply decals.  Have a good friend that’ll give you a pair of Branchline Parlor windows and install roof.

I also modified the Bethlehem Car Works Symington Gould High Speed trucks by filing the upper corners of the sideframes to a shape more closely resembling the Symington Gould XL type truck. 

As mentioned on the Head End Equipment page in the car description, construction of the Red Ball kit ground to a halt when I began to assemble the underbody to the car body. As shown in this photo, there is an interior piece installed at both ends of the car body with a hole that’s supposed to align with the underbody bolster hole for mounting the trucks. On my kit, when I tried to mate the underbody to the car body, the holes were close to ¼ “ out of alignment. The instructions mention nothing about test fitting the parts, or checking the dimensions. Trying to force the parts to mate correctly almost pulled one end off the model, so I set this project aside for a while until I felt up to the challenge. I had used ACC to install the parts in the car ends so this bond broke with only a little effort. After that, I carefully test-fit the pieces and measured the distance from the car end to the hole, keeping in mind that I had about ¼ “ to play with. I went through the process of cutting, filing and test-fitting about three times before I was satisfied with the fit. This was definitely the worst part of assembly, but having survived it one time is enough to prepare one for building additional cars.

Modeling New Haven Water Car L-64

According to New Haven Railroad Disposition of Company Service and Work Equipment dated December, 1963, L-64 was formerly the tender assigned to locomotive 3249, which I believe was a Class L1 2-10-2 Santa Fe type, so I believe it was a Class W-11-A type. Described as a “Water Car” in the New Haven Caboose and Work Equipment Summaries, it was assigned to New Haven at least between 1951 and1956 according to the documents I have available.

Not modeling the Steam Era, I wasn’t set on a 100% accurate model, but I did need a tender for my also inaccurate Athearn 230-ton Derrick. I started with a Tyco tender that was at least close in shape if not dimension to L-64.

I removed most of the lettering on the sides and added a few details including bracing and extension to the coal bin, conduit to the rear headlight and rails on the ladder.

Here’s a photo of the almost-complete model before paint, lettering and applying the Microscale Kristal Kleer lens. All the details added to the car can be seen, including the “ghost image” of the lettering I removed on the tender side.

After that it was into the paint shop using Caboose Red. Of course, being the New Haven, lettering became a problem of sorts as I have two photos of L-64.  The photo of one side showed a large, white, McGinnis block-style herald while the photo of the other side showed a smaller herald.  Both photos are undated, so I chose to go with a large herald. 

Kitbash a New Haven Heavyweight Steel Baggage Car from an Athearn Model

Car 5507 was included in the group of steel baggage cars converted for messenger service and was produced by Athearn (kit 2506) several years ago in the McGinnis New Image scheme. Many modelers are satisfied with the car as produced by Athearn, and by simply replacing the 6-wheel trucks on the model with 4-wheel trucks, the car makes a reasonable stand-in model. At 72’ overall length the model is close to the prototype which was 73’ 3⅝” over the end sills.

The Athearn car can be made to more closely resemble the New Haven messenger service car with a little surgery on the sides to correct the door arrangement and location. Done carefully, this can save the Athearn lettering on the car if that’s desired.

Door Arrangement: The Athearn model comes with an 8’ door and a 5’6” door on each side of the car. While the door widths are very close to correct, the two wide doors are located directly across from each other towards one end of the car and the narrower doors located across from each other towards the other end of the car. On the New Haven 5500-series cars, one wide door was across from a narrow door at each end of the car. This means that on one side of the Athearn car the doors are in the correct arrangement but on the opposite side the doors must be “flipped” end for end. With the model lying flat on one side, if the end of the car with the hand brake wheel is positioned to the left, the side being viewed is the side requiring the doors to be flipped. If the hand brake wheel is on the end of the car to the right, the side being viewed has the two doors in the correct arrangement.

Door Location: Now, if the door arrangement is being corrected, it’s not much more work at all to correct the door location on the sides. The Athearn model has about 24’ from inside door frame to inside door frame spacing while the prototype is 17’7”. If a 3’3” wide section of wall adjacent to the inside of each door is moved to the outside of that door frame, the length of the car side between the doors is reduced to 17’6”, which is very close to matching the prototype. 

The photo shows the side of the car with the hand brake wheel on the car end to the left in the photo. The doors on this side must be “flipped” so the narrow door moves from the left to the right while the wider door moves to the left. Because of this shift the 3’3” section of wall is cut with each door towards the inside of the door frame and after the door and wall sections are removed, the remaining wall section has to be cut below the horizontal rivet strip along the roofline and shifted a little to the right from its original location.

Because the doors are in the correct arrangement on the opposite side of the car (hand brake wheel end of car to the right), the 3’3” section of wall adjacent to the inside of each door is cut and moved to the opposite (outside, towards the car ends) side of the door. The shortened section of wall on this side of the car does not require cutting and relocation.

Once the doors are relocated, all that remains is to install Ward type ventilators along the clerestory using a photo as a reference guide. I used some old Eastern Car Works vents, but Bethlehem Car Works makes these as well as a suitable Standard Motor Co, 4-wheel truck.

Here’s the “Before” photo… 

…and the “After” photo.

After the surgery is complete it's time to install correct 4-wheel trucks that are available from either Bethlehem Car Works or Custom Finishing. The last steps to complete the conversion are to remove the “NEW HAVEN” from the letter boards after which the red-orange will be repainted before re-lettering and to fabricate new doors from sheet styrene. I chose to keep the lettering on the black painted areas since it is reasonably accurate and was not damaged during the modifications.

This photo shows the car with repainted letterboard and new doors fabricated from 0.005" sheet styrene.  I used clear sheet styrene for the small window panes in the doors.  To avoid fogging or smearing glue on the clear "glass", I used Testors Canopy Adhesive that's made for plastic aircraft models. 

When I test fitted the doors I saw I had to remove a little of the top of the old baggage door windows because the new, smaller windows are slightly higher in location and I wanted to prevent seeing the old door through the new window. 

The completed car is pictured on the "Head End and Other Cars page.

Modifying Bachmann Spectrum Coaches for use as 6824-6843 Series Deluxe Smokers 

Always begin by procuring appropriate drawings and photos of any car you are going to model.  I based this project on photos of three cars in Sweetland and Horsley’s "NH Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment".

As with any New Haven modeling project, there are only two simple steps;

Before: 

Step 1. Remove everything that is not New Haven

The windows are part of the roof which is held to the carbody by a total of six tabs (three per side) that extend from the bottom of the clear plastic “glass” through the underbody. Holding the carbody firmly on the sides, apply pressure (gently at first) to one of the tab bottoms protruding through the carbody slot. I used one side of a pair of miniature flat-nose pliers but a small flat screwdriver blade could also be used. Once the roof is slightly lifted above the top of the carbody a thin flat object such as the edge of a scale rule can be slipped into the shallow space between the top of the carbody and the edge of the roof so the roof can gently be pried up from the carbody; first on one side, then the other.

Once the roof is free the row of vents down the center of the clerestory can be removed by slowly, gently and carefully pushing the tip of a chisel blade along the surface of the roof under the vents, one at a time. Be careful to avoid damaging the small electrical contacts and springs located at the bottom center of the window “glass” on each side. If the part is handled carefully the springs should slip back onto the contact posts on the edge of the car floor during re-assembly.

Study the sides of the clerestory to see the small vertical ribs. You may have to remove one or more on each side later when you are adding the Safety vents in order to insure a snug fit of the vent to the clerestory.

Turning back to the carbody it’s time to remove the lettering. I had very good luck applying Microscale Micro Set (blue bottle) and using an eraser to remove the letterboard lettering. I also had luck using this method to remove the car number, but it is well nestled in the overly heavy rivet detail so takes some perseverance to remove.

Finish by removing the 6-wheel trucks. This is accomplished by removing the screw located inside the car in the center above the truck bolster. The truck will drop down and will still be attached to the car by a soldered wire for lighting. I was not sure the car lighting would work upon re-assembly or if I would be satisfied with the operation of the car lighting if it did work, so using a single-edge razor blade, I carefully separated most of the wire below the solder joint. There is enough wire that a new end can be stripped for connection to the new truck. You can pull out your soldering iron to heat the solder and remove the entire wire if you prefer.

The last part to remove is the post from the center of the 6-wheel truck. Studying the truck shows the post becomes a round pedestal at the base where it is joined to the flat center part of the truck span plate. Slowly and gently, slip a chisel blade under the round pedestal and separate this part of the post from the flat span plate below. Once done, either scrap the trucks and wheels or consign them to the spare parts box as you prefer.

Step 2. Add everything that is New Haven

Start with the truck post pedestal that was just removed. I used 0.040” sheet styrene and glues a piece below the pedestal so I could trim the edges to the round shape. When the cement was dry I added a second piece below the first so that I added about 0.080” thickness to the round pedestal base. This is needed so the Walthers truck will set at the correct height. Once you have shimmed the post you may want to dry assemble the truck and post through the bolster and carbody to check the coupler height and adjust by adding more shim or sand away excess.

Make sure you know the top of the post orientation before proceeding with the next steps. The top of the post is square and should be oriented so it appears like a “diamond” instead of a “square” when the bottom is glued to the new truck. This is to be sure the top of the post will fit correctly into the hole on the bell-crank assembly that connects the coupler pocket to the center of the truck.

Once certain the coupler height will be correct, cement the shimmed post to the center of the Walters truck span so the top section appears to be a “diamond” shape looking along the truck axis from end to end. Set aside to dry.

Move on to the roof and make sure you have filled and sanded any scratches, scrapes or gouges remaining from removal of the old vents. Add the Safety Vents to each side of the clerestory using photos as a guide for positioning. When complete, paint the roof with new vents flat black and allow to dry.

I painted and numbered these cars based on the photo references noted above. Two coaches are green and one is in the Black Knight scheme. At this point I simply re-lettered the sides of the two green cars and painted the third in the Black Knight scheme before re-lettering. Unlike my freight equipment I spray my passenger equipment with a semi-gloss clear coat rather than a flat coat. Whether the passenger cars are green, black or stainless steel, I think the semi-gloss finish represents that passenger car exteriors were cleaned more often than freight cars.

Before re-installing the roof I used Testors Clear Parts Cement to attach small bits of tissue inside the saloon window area. While this is drying, re-install the trucks. I connected the lighting wire to one screw on the Walthers truck assembly. Attach to opposite sides of the truck on opposite ends of the car. At this time I have no idea if the Walthers trucks are insulated or if this will work or not, but I will probably re-light my entire passenger car fleet at some point in the future. You may want to test the circuit at this point if you want the lighting to work immediately and will be satisfied with the lighting performance.

If the trucks are non-conductive, a simple and effective wheel wiper can be made using the phosphor-bronze insert that comes with every package of Kadee #5 couplers. The part will have to be bent to work properly, and it may need to be cut as well. Use the hole on this part to secure it under one of the Walthers truck screws. The lighting wire will be soldered to the flat area of the part, and the two thin “spring” sections are bent to contact both wheels on one side of the truck and act as wipers for electrical contact.

Once the trucks are re-assembled with the bell crack inside the car, install the roof and firmly press it down to engage the tabs through the carbody to the underframe.

See? Only two simple steps! 

True Line Trains HO Scale CPA24-5 New Haven DER-4 Modifications 

As reviewed on this site previously, back in Fall 2007 True Line Trains produced HO scale New Haven Class DER-4 Fairbanks Morse CPA24-5’s in both delivery and McGinnis paint schemes. While the models are a welcome addition to the locomotive roster of those modeling after 1951, they do have their problems as delivered from the manufacturer, including the original shipment of New Haven models with three roof fans.  The correct shells with four fans were replaced by True Line Trains, but be wary of shells sold on internet auction sites as they may be the original 3-fan shells. I used the three-fan shells in my “Before and After” rooftop photos. I’ve completed the modifications to my two units to “New Havenize” them. I consider the changes I’ve made to be somewhere the “bare necessities” and “contest quality”. You may want to do more or less as suits your modeling goals and skill levels.

Delivery Scheme Unit 792

For my green and gold unit I began by removing the unnecessary sunshades and grab irons; the two long horizontal grabs on the side of the nose, the two short horizontal grabs that cross the short vertical grabs located along the rear sides of the unit and the two vertical nose grabs. It’s best to consult photos of the unit you are modeling as some units were equipped with grab irons at some point in their career, particularly if they were modified with MU connections. I also removed the horizontal grabs located on the side of the pilot. I drilled new holes for these grabs and installed them on the top surface of the side of the pilot.

The exhaust stacks located about 2/3 towards the rear of the roof are also too tall for the New Haven units. I applied tape around and between the stacks to prevent marring the roof surface and with a 0.040” thick ½” wide strip of sheet styrene as a guide I shortened the stacks. The styrene is laid on its side so the ½” width provides a spacious flat area to rest the blade of the razor saw horizontally across the roof for and even cut. 

The next step was to remove all the lettering and numbers from the unit so that only the striping remained. So far the process that has worked for me on models from a variety of manufacturers is to apply a small coat of Microscale decal setting solution with a brush and then use an eraser to remove the lettering or road numbers. I’m currently using a Faber Castell eraser that is sold in pencil form so it can be sharpened in a standard pencil sharpener to produce a fresh surface. I’ve also used a “Magic White” eraser, and other modelers I know have success using a plain pencil-tip eraser. If you have your own preferred technique I recommend testing it on the numbers on the rear of the unit just to be safe. The same advice applies if you’re trying a decal setting solution other than Microscale.

With the lettering, herald and road numbers removed (except from the number boards on the nose) you can begin to apply correct lettering. I used lettering from two different Accu-cal New Haven Green & Gold Cab Unit sets I had on hand, but you should be able to get by with Microscale sets 87-1060 (lettering and numbers) and 87-1061 (stripes) if you don’t have anything on hand. Replace the script herald and road number on the nose, the road number on the sides and rear of the unit and the “NEW HAVEN” lettering along the sides. Consult the supplied lettering diagrams and photos for correct locations, and don’t forget the “F” and “DER-4” lettering to designate the front and locomotive class of the unit. 

In addition to the lettering, apply short lengths of striping of the correct width to extend the stripes that end on the side of the model to reach the end of the model, matching prototype photos. With the lettering changed, the model is much better looking and there are only a few more items to attend to.

All the grabirons and handrails should be black. These parts are made of a slippery engineering plastic on the model, so I used Testors “RC” paint sold under the Pactra label. The lacquer versions of these paints are specially formulated for good adhesion to slippery engineering plastics and remain somewhat flexible when dry to prevent chipping. I used Pactra RC “Outlaw Black” on the handrails and grabirons on my model.

I also modified the horn area on my model to more closely resemble the prototype. While the model is made with a raised lip at the front of the horn area on the roof with two small slots in the front, the prototype had a visibly lowered roofline at the front where the horns were located. After removing the horn carefully tape the surrounding area to avoid damaging other details. Use a razor saw to cut vertically down through the “outside” of the left- and right-hand edges of the slots. Just as carefully, I make a horizontal cut across the center of the roof above the windshield and in line with the bottom edge of the two slots. Be careful, this cut cannot be made all the way through the raised lip to the depressed area behind the lip without making cut marks beyond the horn area, so only cut as deep as possible while not damaging the surface of the model. The area is cleaned out using a #17 chisel blade in my X-acto knife. Use small files to clean up the area where the lip has been removed so that the bottom and edges match up closely with these features molded into the roof of the model.  

Final dressing of the cut-out area is completed with progressively finer sanding and polishing sticks. Once the area is cleaned up drill two #61 holes for installing a pair of Details West #174 WABCO Type E Single Chime air horns painted black, and the unit is complete.

I have not plugged the holes for the horizontal grabs removed from the rear sides, the holes on the side of the pilot left from relocation of those grabs to the top of the pilot, or the vertical nose grabs. I did use styrene rod to fill the holes left from removal of the long horizontal grab on the side of the nose. I then used bits of decal stripe to cover the filled holes. If I get around to filling the remaining holes, the styrene rod will be painted…hopefully some shade of green that’s close to the body color. 

McGinnis Scheme Unit 798

The prototype was repainted from the green and gold delivery scheme to the ‘New Image’ scheme in early 1957. Between 1955 and 1959, several DER-4’s, including 798 were fitted with MU equipment. Photographic evidence suggests than MU-equipped units also featured the long vertical nose grabs and a nose-mounted pilot light. My reference photographs show that when repainted, 798 did not get a road number on the nose below the block ‘NH’ logo.

Similar to the delivery scheme unit, begin by removing the sunshades and grabs as described above. I also removed and set aside for reinstallation the vertical nose grabs at this time to facilitate removing the manufacturer-applied nose herald and for repainting. The short grabs were also relocated from the side to the top of the pilot, and the exhaust stacks were shortened as described for unit 792.

My opinion was the ‘New Image’ ‘NH’ on the sides along with the serif “NEW HAVEN” was close enough in appearance and size to retain, so in addition to the nose herald and road number, I removed the road numbers on the sides and rear of the unit using the technique described above.

For this unit I used the CPA24-5 nose herald and road numbers from Microscale set 87-937, “NH Cab Diesels 1954-1968”. I extended the white and red-orange color bands to the ends of the sides of the body using pieces of white and red-orange decal cut from “N”’s and “H”’s from a very old Microscale set (no longer cataloged – “RH68” which included decals for both green & gold and ‘New Image’ cab units and electrics – quite a set!). The color match is quite good. The red-orange is opaque enough to cover in one layer, but the white decal over the black car side required two layers for good coverage. 

Above, the "Before" and "After" shots.  I used the blue background to make viewing the shortened exhaust stacks less difficult. 

After applying the nose herald I painted the vertical nose grabs with the Testors (Pactra) “Outlaw Black” and reinstalled these parts and the grabs on top of the pilot, then modified the horn area as already described before installing the WABCO Type E horns.

As before, I have not filled the holes left on the sides of the pilot after relocating the grabs nor have I filled the holes from removal of the short horizontal grab at the rear sides of the model. I did fill the holes from removal of the long horizontal grabs along the sides of the nose and cover these with bits of red-orange and white decal.

As of this update, the unit is complete with the exception of the Details West #172 Step Light which will be installed on the nose and painted black shortly after delivery to my local hobby shop!